Innovation And The Beautiful Game

With the Euro 2020 ending in a tie-breaker, it seems apposite to start this story in another tie breaker. When the Czech midfielder Antonin Panenka stepped up to take the fifth penalty for his side in the 1976 Euro final tie-breaker, he was staring into the eyes of Sepp Maier, the famous West German Goalkeeper. The game had been tied at 2-2. Both sides had converted their first 3 penalties. Czechoslovakia converted their fourth, and West Germany missed. Which meant that Antonin Paneka could win the trophy with this kick. Penalties are high pressure situations because the keeper has nothing to lose, so all the pressure is on the penalty taker. You have to kick the ball firmly into the corner, ideally in the opposite direction to which the keeper has chosen to dive. But Antonin Panenka chose that moment to unleash his innovation which he had been practicing for 2 years. He ran up as if to slam the ball into the corner, but instead gently chipped the ball straight down the middle, where it would have looped gracefully and gently into the arms of the goalkeeper, had he not moved at all. But of course goalkeepers pick a side and dive, which Maier did. The ball arced slowly into the net, and the "Panenka" was born. Probabilistically, given that the keeper invariably dives, shooting down the middle is actually a good option. But this is classic game theory, and most people prefer the safety of the corner of the goal, because you can look foolish if the keeper doesn't move. Which is what makes the Panenka even more audacious. And audacity is often a hallmark of great innovation.

25 years after Panenka's eponymous kick, Erik Lamela scored the goal of the month with a?"rabona" - another footballing trick where you kick the ball by swinging the kicking leg around the back of your standing leg. Pele was a master of the audacious, coupling athleticism with trickery - which helped him to score a sumptuous goal in the World Cup final 1958 at the age of 17. On field innovation by players is really about athleticism and audacity. Consider the "Cruyff turn" or the "Zidane Pirouette" - they are all ways to wrong foot the opposition.

But it's not just the players, managers too, have to keep innovating. When Jose Mourinho took charge of Chelsea in 2003 he dramatically lowered the number of goals the team conceded, and Chelsea won the league in his first season. And almost a decade before this, when Arsene Wenger first moved to England, from the relatively unknown Japanese club Nagoya Grampus Eight, he completely overhauled the nutritional regime of the players from their traditional burgers and chips for fish and boiled vegetables, also elevating performances. It's a reminder that the source of innovation can be a completely unexpected area that has not been explored before.

Besides this in Football, as with any sport, there's a constant search for innovation that would give you any kind of advantage in a contest. It often manifests in formations and tactics. At various times people have adopted the cattenaccio, the libero, the false 9, total football, inverted wingers, and many other innovations. And that's before you get into formations like 4-4-2, 3-4-3, 4-2-3-1 et al. But no matter what formation or innovation in tactics, you're sure to find the next innovation catching up with you. The lesson for us is that no advantage is permanent, and today's innovation very quickly becomes tomorrow's 'old-fashioned'.

As with any other innovations, small changes can often make big differences to the game. Football manufacturers such as Adidas have been innovating continuously to tweak the performance of the football. Vulcanisation of rubber created the football bladders of a hundred years ago. The shift from leather to synthetic materials made the balls weather resistant in the 60s, with 32 hexagonal and pentagonal panels forming the ball which wouldn't get heavier when wet. The synthetic leather also ensured more uniform thickness and better aerodymamics. Thermal bonding replaced stitching and the number of were panels reduced, leading to even greater focus on aerodynamics. Sometimes they got it wrong, as with the Jabulani ball of the 2006 world cup. But the current focus is on better flight which means better control, and the predominance of technique which makes the spectacle greater. The evolution of the football is a testament to the power of marginal innovation. Oh and an interesting side note on specialisation - the city of Sialkot in Pakistan produces half the volume of FIFA approved footballs in the world!

Football jerseys keep improving. And boots too, have had their steady evolution, also moving from leather to synthetic materials, and the configuration of the studs being modelled for specific playing styles and conditions, and even personalisation of boots for professional footballers. But this is also where commercial innovation has played a huge role. From giving athletes and players free shoes to wear, to actually paying them to wear the shoes - the vast commercial empires of sports marketing were invented here, recounted in the excellent book Pitch Invasion. (Stepping away from football for a second, in the famous picture of Tommie Smith and John Carlos's power salute in the 1968 Olympics, you can see a single Puma shoe on the podium - which has its own lore).

Speaking of commercial innovation, it's worth remembering the story behind the explosive commercialisation of football. In the late 1980s Sky and British Satellite Broadcasting were a duopoly in the nascent satellite broadcasting space, and losing millions of pounds a day. Meanwhile 90 odd football clubs across 4 divisions of English football were sharing a meagre amount of television money. Sky acquired the state run BSB, and convinced the top?clubs in England to form a breakaway league, with a lot more money. And the beast that is the EPL was born. A massive disruptive innovation which enjoyed the virtuous cycle of more money, better players, improved broadcasting, and even more money. Chris Horrie's book "Premiership" tells the origin story well.

So there you have it. Plenty of innovation lessons from the beautiful game.?The role of audacity, the time bound value of innovations, the need to look at under-explored sources of improvement, the focus on technology, design, as well as commercial models, and of course, the playbooks for both marginal and disruptive innovation. What lies ahead? Almost all the areas we've spoken about will continue to evolve. Additionally, the last couple of years have seen the introduction of Video Assisted Refereeing in football , and goal line technology. The latter has been very successful as it has helped to being objectivity to a highly subjective and fraught decision. The former, unfortunately, has been a case study of how not to introduce technology. The rules have been vague, the stakeholder needs have not been factored in, communication has been poor, and overall there are just as many complaints, as before the tech was introduced. While this will no doubt be tinkered with until it is acceptable, other areas where the sport could use help include controlling fan behaviour at stadiums and racial abuse on social media. After all, the innovation journey is never complete.?

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